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by JustAnotherGeekyAuthor
Summary: an Infinity War/Endgame AU- what would happen if half of Steven's universe suddenly disappeared? SPOILER: Trigger warning for self harm and suicide.
1. There Was No Other Way

**A/N: My friend dared me to write this after watching Infinity War, so this is an AU. Possible endgame spoilers (my predictions were a little too accurate). Part 1 of 3.**

Part 1: There Was No Other Way

The Crystal Gems had lost.

Black Diamond snapped her fingers, and everything went silent. The sound of battle ceased to be as fighters from both sides began disintegrating, leaving behind nothing but dust.

Garnet couldn't move. She looked at Black Diamond, the wicked grin on her face as she looked around at the silent genocide. Black diamond clenched her fist, the six stones of the Infinity Gauntlet flashing in the light.

"No…" A whisper from beside Garnet. She forced herself to look as Pearl collapsed, then disappeared, nothing but dust on the wind.

"Please…" Steven's last words were silenced as his remains floated away; but his gemstone remained, a part of him to live on.

Garnet looked at her hands. For a moment, she had hope. For a moment, she thought she might live through this.

Then her left hand started to blow away.

She fought it with everything she had. She fought with the strength she gained from the love which had kept her together for millennia, with the iron will that had let her stand up to Blue Diamond not so long ago, with the promises she'd made to everyone, with the knowledge that they needed their leader.

None of it was enough.

Sapphire fell to the ground. She didn't want to watch, she didn't want it to be true, but she couldn't look away. In front of her, Ruby fell to her knees and reached for Sapphire one last time before turning to dust.

At first, Sapphire felt nothing. The shock was too much, and she just sat there, staring at the place where Ruby was only a second before. A tear sprang to her eye, and she let it fall, let it roll down her cheek and drip off her chin, a tiny droplet hitting the ground.

Something began to grow inside of her. Something she had thought she'd never truly feel on her own.

Pure rage. Cold, hard, unbridled rage. Sapphire was many things, but she was not reckless. She was not one to give in to pure emotion. She was one who would work with it. She knew that in this moment, in her darkest hour, she was at her strongest.

Sapphire didn't even get to her feet.

Ice covered the battlefield, instantly coating friend and foe alike. Black Diamond had no chance to react, becoming frozen in time, just like the rest of them.

Sapphire sent a dagger of ice through her gem, shattering the gem who had taken so much from them.

Slowly, Sapphire got to her feet. She levitated for a moment, barely an inch off the ground, then shot forward and pulled the gauntlet out of the ice. From it she took the Time Stone.

Sapphire looked at the stone, sitting in her left palm. The hand where Ruby's gem should be.

She knew what she had to do.


	2. What Have You Done?

**A/N: Part two! If you thought it couldn't get any worse after the last part, you are sorely mistaken. Prepare yourselves emotionally. Trigger warnings at the bottom!**

Part 2: What Have You Done?

Garnet paused suddenly as a sudden flood of new memories hit her. Not a future vision, as she had immediately assumed, but something which had actually happened, and that Sapphire had come back from.

Black Diamond was standing over the battlefield, untouched by any crystal gem, her forces keeping them back.

Garnet knew exactly what to do.

In a single motion, she cast off the shadow which had her pinned, got to her feet, and leaped over the heads of the crowds. The trajectory was calculated perfectly in her mind; she knew exactly where she would land. Right on top of Black Diamond.

She would kick her in the chest and grab the gauntlet at the same time, separating her from it. She'd toss the Gauntlet to Pearl, who would make sure it was kept out of Black Diamond's hands. Then she would shatter Black Diamond immediately, no questions asked. She'd console Steven later.

But Black Diamond was one step ahead of her.

Black Diamond caught Garnet by the ankle as she was about to hit her, and chuckled.

"Foolish gem. Did you really think you could defeat me on your own?" She tossed Garnet across the battlefield, and Garnet bit her tongue to keep from crying out as Sapphire's gem hit the ground with a loud _crack._

"You were too late," Black Diamond said with a smirk. She snapped her fingers, and all was quiet.

Garnet looked at her hands. Just like before, for a moment she thought she might make it through- but she already knew what was coming.

Her right hand started to disintegrate.

Ruby watched, horrified, as Sapphire blew away in the wind.

In all her life, for as long as she could remember, Ruby had always been the one to get angry. She was rash, impulsive, and had a terrible temper. She'd nearly shattered a gem when she heard her calling rubies dumb.

None of that compared to the rage coursing through her veins at this moment.

Tears flowed from Ruby's eyes, but they evaporated the instant they touched her burning hot skin. Fire sprang up around her feet as she stood up and looked at Black Diamond, who seemed to be basking in the glory of her victory.

Ruby charged, and the world lit on fire.

When the flames cleared, nothing was left of Black Diamond but a pile of shards. The remains of the gauntlet lay in a twisted mess on the ground, all of the stones broken beyond repair.

Her rage expended, Ruby looked around. All the gems left were in various states of emotional distress, some punching the rock, some crying uncontrollably, some staring into space.

Ruby looked at her hand and started to cry.

"What have you done," Amethyst whispered. She picked up the remains of the gauntlet and threw them as far as she could before rounding on Ruby. "What have you done! We could've done something, gone back and saved them, we could've done something!" her voice cracked as she sobbed, falling to the ground beside Ruby. "what have you done…"  
Ruby stared off into space, tears dripping down her cheeks. A phantom image of Sapphire, her eye wide and a tear falling as she turned to dust, stared down at her. She shut her eyes, but the image still remained.

"I can't do it," Ruby said, her voice shaking. "I can't do it, I can't, I can't live without her!"

Ruby raised her left hand and hit her gem against the ground.

"No!" Amethyst exclaimed, and grabbed her arm to restrain her. "We've already lost too much today, I don't want to lose you too!"

"Let go!" Ruby screamed. "Just let me shatter already, I don't deserve to be here, it should have been me!"

"I won't let you shatter yourself!" Amethyst pleaded with her. "Just stop, and come home. Maybe we'll find a way to fix this."

"There's no fixing it!" Ruby wrenched her arm out of Amethyst's grip and slammed her gem against the ground over, and over, until her gem shattered, and she could finally rest.

**A/N: Trigger warning for suicide and self-harm**


	3. Endgame

**A/N: I wrote this part before seeing Endgame, as a happy ending loophole (because I can't stand sad endings), but now it seems to be more accurate than I anticipated. So… spoiler warning if you haven't seen Endgame yet. Enjoy!**

_P.s. I apologise for the frequent changes in perspective_

Part 3: Endgame

Sapphire opened her eye, and for a moment she thought she had survived. Then she looked at her hands- and she could see right through them.

She watched as Ruby, in her rage, destroyed Black Diamond- and the gauntlet.

Pearl, in her ghostly form, covered Sapphire's eye as Ruby hit her gem against the ground.

Sapphire looked up, expecting to see a ghostly version of her Ruby- but there was nothing there. Just a pile of gem shards on the ground.

"Where are we?" Sapphire turned to see Steven standing there- but it wasn't Steven. Only half of him, his human half, had been vanished.

"This is the afterlife," Pearl said quietly. "Just… existence on another plane."

Human steven looked at the pink gem on the ground with sadness. As he watched, the gem glowed, and Pink Steven formed.

Connie looked up when the gem glowed- then went back to crying when she realised it was only half of the boy she knew. She saw only devastation around her; only her, Amethyst, and Pink Steven left of the Crystal Gems.

Pink Steven saw something else. He saw transparent figures, ghosts of gems who had vanished, standing all around him. His other half stared at him sadly- and he stared right back.

"I think he's looking at me," human steven breathed. He reached out, and a pink hand met his. Suddenly, human steven felt his feet hit the ground, and he was back in the physical plane.

"Steven…?" Connie looked up, confused. He had appeared out of nowhere, just as suddenly as he'd disappeared.

The two Stevens reunited, fusing into the Steven Universe she remembered.

Connie immediately gave him a hug, relieved to see him again.

"Hey, Connie," Steven said, smiling and hugging her back.

"Steven, what happened? Where did you go?" Connie asked.

"You won't believe what I've seen!" Steven exclaimed. "My powers, I can bring back the dead! I can bring them back, bring them all back!"

"All of them?" Amethyst breathed. She held a bubble in her hands, containing Ruby's shards.

"All of them," Steven said confidently, though he had no clue how he would go about it. Connie backed away to let him think.

Steven turned around and looked where he remembered Pearl and Sapphire being. "Pearl, you first. Here," he licked his palm and held up the healing fluids.

Pearl looked at Steven. Though she was extremely squeamish about these things, she knew that it was necessary. She took a bit of the healing spit, and put it on her gem.

Connie watched as Pearl suddenly materialized, just as Steven had a few moments earlier. Steven immediately gave Pearl a hug, exclaiming "It worked!" He immediately held out more healing spit, asking for Sapphire this time. A few moments later, she appeared.

"Ruby. You can save her, right?" Sapphire said, her voice almost a whisper.

"Of course I can," Steven reassured her. He turned to Amethyst, who handed him the bubble. He popped it, and let the shards rest in his hands. A tear fell from his eye and landed on the shards. At first, nothing happened. Then the shards began to glow, rising and reassembling themselves into a perfect gem. Ruby reformed, and looked very confused.

"Sapphire…?" She said, tentatively reaching out to the blue gem. Sapphire wrapped Ruby in a hug, tears flowing down her face yet again.

"Don't ever do that to me again," Sapphire whispered.

"Don't you ever disappear like that again," Ruby replied, though her tone was equally relieved.

A moment later, Garnet was back, smiling despite everything. Against all odds, she'd survived.

Steven walked through the battlefield, beckoning to the ghosts around them, inviting them back to the land of the living. One by one the armies of gems came back to life, rejoicing in their second chance.

At the end of it all, only Black Diamond remained in pieces.


End file.
